Publications & Testimony

Items: 91 — 100


Oct 23, 2024

The Limitations of DNA Evidence in Innocence Cases

Death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers with cred­i­ble evi­dence of inno­cence have gained sig­nif­i­cant atten­tion this month with the exe­cu­tion of Marcellus Williams in Missouri, the near-exe­cu­­tion of Robert Roberson in Texas, and the U.S. Supreme Court argu­ments in Glossip v. Oklahoma. There is a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion that DNA evi­dence is wide­ly avail­able in all cas­es and cen­tral to exon­er­a­tions, but the real­i­ty is that DNA exon­er­a­tions in death penal­ty cases are…

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Oct 21, 2024

Testimony at Texas Legislature Does Not Include Robert Roberson But Witnesses Confirm Serious Concerns about the Possible Execution of an Innocent Man

The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence heard tes­ti­mo­ny on Monday October 21, 2024 from nov­el­ist John Grisham, talk show host​“Dr. Phil” McGraw, but not its expect­ed star wit­ness, Robert Roberson, whose sub­poe­naed tes­ti­mo­ny result­ed in a dra­mat­ic last-minute stay of exe­cu­tion on October 17th from the Texas Supreme Court. Legislators said they could not reach an agree­ment with the Office of the Texas Attorney General to facil­i­tate Mr. Roberson’s in-person…

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Oct 15, 2024

Joseph Giarratano, Former Death Row Prisoner and Prison Reform Advocate, Has Died

Joseph Giarratano (pic­tured, cen­ter) died on October 6, 2024. He had spent near­ly forty years in prison, many of them on death row, for a crime he main­tained he did not com­mit. During his time behind bars, he sought to improve prison con­di­tions and secure access to attor­neys. After being paroled in 2017, he worked at the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project, con­tin­u­ing his work to assist incarcerated…

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Oct 11, 2024

French and German Embassies Host a Discussion on Innocence and the Death Penalty

On October 11, 2024 the Embassies of France and Germany host­ed a dis­cus­sion on the ques­tion of inno­cence and the death penal­ty at the res­i­dence of the French Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Panelists includ­ed Herman Lindsey, a death row exoneree and Executive Director of Witness to Innocence; Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project; and Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Program at Catholic Mobilizing Network. The…

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Oct 09, 2024

A Meaningless Ritual”? U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Whether Ruben Gutierrez Can Challenge Texas DNA Testing Procedures to Prove His Innocence

On Friday, October 4, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argu­ments in Gutierrez v. Saenz, a case regard­ing death-sen­­tenced Texas pris­on­er Ruben Gutierrez’s abil­i­ty to sue the state for DNA test­ing in sup­port of his inno­cence claim. The Court had issued a stay to Mr. Gutierrez on July 16, just twen­ty min­utes before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Mr. Gutierrez was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the mur­der and rob­bery of an 85-year-old woman but has long…

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